Every so often, I come back to the thought: “I wish I had a better flow of reading news/content”. If I don’t stay intentional with this, I feel like I bounce around whatever is the most fun or simply the path of least resistance. I often try to create habits, to nudge me in better directions – or keep me away from poor ones.
Such as paying for the UnDistract Chrome Extension. Or deleting my Instagram account.
I’ve tried setting up an RSS Reader a couple of times, and each time it slips out of my habits. I remember CGP Grey once saying (paraphrasing): “When trying to implement behavioural change ‘trying harder’ is the dumbest strategy there is”.
RSS Readers
Feedly
I’ve tried using Feedly a couple of times, and every time it slips out of my habits to check it. And I kept blaming myself for it. But thinking about it, it is very revolved around ‘Today’ or ‘Newest’ post and ‘Being “done” today’. That, and the fact they they are desperately trying to implement some ‘AI Features’, that I’m not interested in, makes the interface muddy and annoying.
Reeder.
I’m trying to use this now, to see how that goes.
Further reading
- Maragu posted this great post about blogs he has enjoyed. Great inspiration for AI-enthusiasts and programmers, I’d say.
- My good friend KPLauritzen posted his thoughts on RSS, with some great words about how to use RSS properly. You should also check out his Blogroll (I love that term).
Challenges
Now I have a place to post my challenges with this setup, as I come across it. If I found solutions for it, I’ll write that as well.
Challenge #1: People posting too much
Look at this feed here:
I don’t know how to solve, that Simon Willison and John Gruber posts as often as they do. They drown my feed. I’m not sure, how to solve this. I saw that RSS Reeder has some ‘Filter’-feature in the paid version, that I’ll try to give a whack. But do I then categorize/filter my RSS sources based on the frequency they post stuff.
I should try to setup some filters.
Challenge #2: Feeling stupid
A situation that often happen, whenever I come back to the RSS ways, is that I end up feeling stupid. When browsing the web, I don’t think about how easily digestible the news are.
But the things I wish I was reading more, is stuff like these:
- Highlights from my appearance on the Data Renegades podcast with CL Kao and Dori Wilson, by Simon Willison
- The sights and sounds of Bhutan, by WaitButWhy
- Open Thread 409, by Astral Codex Ten
- Superpowers (and Skills) for OpenCode, by Massively Parallel Procrastination
- LLM Evals: Everything You Need to Know, by Hamel’s Blog
And it’s not that light reading, that stuff.
I should definitely try to setup some filters.
My own attempts and tricks
- By subscribing to my own blog, in my RSS Reader, I can see how potential other subscribers see my content.
- I think I’ll try to be dynamic in adding and removing feeds. So if something annoys me, either try to filter it – or unsubscribe it temporarily. Hoping that I gradually improve my feed to fit my current state of mind and interest.